It has severely frustrated me that there are no in-depth guides provided to one of the most necessary tank-healing specs (and the most OP cleric one), and that a lot of people simply don't know how to use the Purifier soul effectively. While Burninalways' guide is a good starting point, it offers very little into the more advanced playstyles and there are many Rift bosses balanced around a good Purifier. With that said, here is a (hopefully) more detailed guide.
P.S.: I'd like to thank Burninalways, as I blatantly stole a lot of his macros and skill descriptions because I'm too lazy to retype them. There will be some tweaks, and I will do my best to explain why I have changed certain areas that are different from his guide.
Standard Spec:
61 Purifier, 13 Sentinel, 2 Oracle
This is the standard spec for use in raids. Compared to the 11 Sentinel/4 Oracle spec, it offers slightly less spellpower (4%), in exchange for a 1% overall healing and absorption increase (from taking points in Sentinel over Oracle) and a 6% healing and absorption increase on targets below 75% health. This will help significantly more in refilling a tank's health bar, and the absorption cap (absorbs cannot go beyond 50% of max HP) reduces the effectiveness of straight spellpower on absorbs when the tank is at or close to max health (a lot of it goes to waste).
Alternative Specs:
61 Purifier, 13 Sentinel, 2 Oracle - Non Pushback
This is an alternate to the standard spec accounting for pushback in raids. I will explain the reasoning behind this in the Playstyle section.
61 Purifier, 13 Sentinel, 2 Inquisitor - Non Oracle
54 Purifier, 21 Sentinel, 1 Oracle - Healer's Covenant Variation
I'm sure there are many people who will question this particular variant, and there are quite a few flavors to this one based on your own healing preferences. There are many different ways to spec the Healer's Covenant variant of Purifier and I have not really found them to be too different. The reasons I listed this one are as follows:
1. 1sec GCD ST cleanses.
2. Double AoE (10 people) cleanse, one of which is 1sec GCD.
3. Healer's Covenant duh! (40% reduced damage for 10 seconds, 1 minute cooldown).
You can mess with the point spread on your own for different fights, mainly more spellpower from Oracle and no reduced GCD from Sentinel cleanses.
Masteries:
Level 61 - Righteous Protection
Level 62 - Divine Inspiration
Level 63 - Meditation (alternate: Faith's Freedom)
Level 64 - Faith's Reward (alternate: Diversify NOT RECOMMENDED)
Level 65 - Divine Favor
The Divine Favor mastery is pretty much a required skill for Purifiers, as our base heals (not counting absorption) are pretty weak and you need this to top off the tank in raid situations. I would not recommend Soul Stream, as it has a pretty nasty delay before the first tick for healing which can leave a tank dead in the exact scenarios that you need it the most.
In dungeons, you can use Divine Favor on other party members to top them off if you are confident in your tank heals without it. In raids, it is much more preferable to put them on tanks, with the last one (not many fights require more than 2 tanks) at your discretion based on mechanics required.
Faith's Reward will be explained in Playstyles. Diversify can be used to increase the number of Purifier signs applied, but this is a relatively weak boost and the strengths of Faith's Reward will be explored later.
Meditation will help with your mana problems. Purifier has a lot of mana problems. You will have even mana problems if you opt into the playstyle covered in this guide. Faith's Freedom is only for a Battle Rez at full health, which you might need in some situations if you don't mind using a mana potion or three per boss pull.
Buffs:
Boon of Vitality
Heroic Resolve
Wisdom of the Ages
Caregiver's Blessing
Sign of Faith
As you use another Sign due to Diversify you can choose between Sign of Daring or Sign of Anticipation.
You will sometimes have to reapply Sign of Faith when swapping between those two.
Sign of Daring - Use when the Tank is just fighting a Boss, with little to no adds.
Sign of Anticipation - Use when the Tank is engaging trash or lots of adds on a Boss fight.
Tank Buff:
Eruption
Standard Playstyle:
Before the fight cast Latent Blaze on the tank. This will proc if the tank survives a large hit (is below 30% after a single damage tick), but will not prevent 1-shot mechanics.
Symbol usage is very important to manage in Purifier. Placing a Symbol of the Sun (the stronger Symbol) on a target will increase all of your Fire-based healing by 20% on the target. It is important to keep this buff up at all times on all active tanks.
Aside from that, however, your Symbols will also refresh once if they are 100% consumed within 3s of their application. By pre-empting large damage mechanics, you can double your Symbol's effectiveness without gambling on a Clear the Coals proc, which removes Burnout on the target and allows you to reapply your Symbol.
Standard Rotation is Ward of Flames x2 -> (instant) Ward of Fire. By taking Faith's Reward you can also hold onto an instant Ward of Scorching (if necessary), but do note that casting instant Ward of Fires will consume Faith's Reward stacks even with the necessary stacks from Ward of Flames. Ward of Scorching casts are therefore not recommended, especially due to 1) extremely high mana costs in a mana hungry spec 2) likely a waste due to absorption cap.
If you can save the cooldown, it is recommended that you continue to channel Ward of Flames as long as the tank is not taking much damage, as an instant cast Ward of Fire is helpful in reacting to moderate burst tank damage. High burst will either proc your Latent Blaze, or require a stronger cooldown (Spiritual Conflagration) or multiple in concert (either Flashover and/or Fiery Will) with Ward of Fire.
Why would you even want to take Faith's Reward, then? The reason for taking it is due to the unique interaction arising from Faith's Reward, Ward of Flames buff stacks, your own global cooldowns (1.5sec), and Divine Favor.
Before the introduction of masteries, a single cast of Ward of Flames would allow you to cast Ward of Fire with a 1.5sec cast time, which is exactly in line of with your global cooldown and maximize (and even out) total healing throughput for a given parse. With masteries, however, you can achieve a 1.5sec cast of Ward of Fire within 2 secs of your channel of Ward of Flames (2 stacks of Ward of Flames buff, 1 stack of Faith's Reward). This changes the maximum healing throughput rotation to this:
Ward of Flames (2sec, clip channel) -> Ward of Fire (1.5sec cast)
There are three main advantages to healing like this:
1. Ward of Flames only procs your Divine Favor once (at the start). Extending the channel will not allow you to proc Divine Favor again, which reduces your healing on tanks (who should have them anyway).
2. Prevents waste with Faith's Reward stacks consuming.
3. Movement heavy phases will allow Faith's Reward to stack up (through the use of any healing spell at all, and at 5 stacks you can quickly cast a Ward of Fire (0.5sec cast) or Ward of Scorching (instant), to mitigate Purifier's lack of mobility.
This healing setup is designed to take advantage of the very very strong Divine Favor procs on tanks (can crit for 30k in raid setups). However, the downside is that this rotation is even more mana hungry than the standard rotation, which means mana management becomes crucial for Purifiers in any extended engagement (beyond 3 minutes).
Please also note that if you do end up hard casting Ward of Fire often, you will suffer from Pushback (taking damage while casting increases cast times by 0.3sec per tick of damage) on damage from casting that will increase your cast times and render most of the advantages of the spec moot. Consider using the first alternate spec to prevent this problem with heavy raid-damage encounters.
Useful abilities you need to know about:
Spoiler!
Buffs:
Sign of Faith is the best Sign to have once at 54 points into Purifier.
Your Eruption buff can't not be placed on yourself, you should cast it on the tank in order to do dps from healing with Purifier absorption abilities.
Sign of Faith -
Causes the Cleric's single target healing and absorption spells to apply Sign of Faith for 15s. Reduces damage taken by 7%. Lasts 1h.
Sign of Anticipation -
Causes the Cleric's single target healing and absorption spells to apply Sign of Anticipation for 15s. Increases Dodge and Block by 3%. Lasts 1h.
Sign of Daring -
Causes the Cleric's single target healing and absorption spells to apply Sign of Daring for 15s. Increases Armor and all Resistances by 3%. Lasts 1h.
Caregiver's Blessing -
Causes single target healing and absorption spells to apply Caregiver's Blessing for 10s. Absorbs 88 damage. Lasts 1h.
Eruption -
When an absorb is applied to an ally by the Cleric while in combat, deals Fire damage to the ally's target based on the Cleric's Spell Power. Cannot target the Cleric. Can only affect 1 ally. Lasts 1h.
Heroic Resolve -
Increases Endurance on all party or raid members. Lasts 1h
Wisdom of the Ages -
Increases Wisdom on all party or raid members. Lasts 1h
Boon of Vitality -
Increases Endurance on all party or raid members. Lasts 1h
Symbols:
Each type can only shield 3 targets at a time, though a target will only count towards the max if the Symbol's absorption has not been fully used up. If you reapply a Symbol on a target beyond the max, the earliest Symbol applied will fall off.
Symbol of the Sun is the more powerful version of Symbol of the Torch; you want to save Sun for the tank and use Torch for spot shielding endangered members in a raid if you are not actively casting on the tank.
Casting a Symbol will cause the target to get Burnout, stopping the target from obtaining another Symbol until it is gone. Burnout can be removed by proccing Clear the Coals on the target (15% chance with mastery).
Symbol of the Torch -
Absorbs damage. Lasts 30s.
Symbol of the Sun -
Absorbs damage. Lasts 30s.
Wards & Heals:
When channeling Ward of Flame you gain 3 stacks of Bless of the Flame that will cause the cast time of
Ward of Fire to be reduced.
At 6 stacks of Bless of the Flame you can instantly cast Ward of Fire.
Ward of Scorching can drain your mana fast if you cast to many times, it's not a replacement for Ward of Fire.
Healing Flare -
Restores health.
Healing Breath -
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Restores health.
Ward of Flame -
3.0s Channel
Restores health over 3s. Applies a stacking absorb shield effect each second, absorbing up to damage per stack. Lasts 10s. Max 3 stacks.
Ward of Fire -
Cast Time: 3.0s
Restores health. Absorbs damage. Lasts 10s. Healing done by Ward of Flame applies a stacking buff, reducing the cast time of Ward of Fire by 0.5s and the mana cost by 5%, per stack. Max 6 stacks.
Ward of Scorching -
Cast Time: 2.0s
Restores health. Absorbs damage. Lasts 10s.
Cleanses:
Cauterize -
Removes 1 Curse, Disease, or Poison.
Sterilize -
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Removes all Curses, Diseases, and Poisons.
Cauterizing Wave -
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Removes 1 Curse, Disease, or Poison from up to 10 party or raid members.
Cooldowns:
Flashover, Tidal Surge & Fiery Will does not affect Flame of Life.
In order to get max healing from Latent Blaze before the fight apply:
Symbol of the Sun then do Flashover > Fiery Will > Latent Blaze.
Be aware that this will consume a significant cooldown in Fiery Will, which is 1 minute long.
Spiritual Conflagration, Rite of the Forge and Gathering of Flames will not stack on the same target.
Both Spiritual Conflagration & Rite of the Forge with override Gathering of Flames and each other.
Gathering of Flames randomly shields 10 members in a raid.
Flash of the Phoenix -
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Brings the fallen ally back to life, restoring 50% health and mana. Usable in combat.
Latent Blaze -
Cast Time: 3 seconds
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Restores health if health drops below 30% within 5m.
Flashover -
Instant - No Global Cooldown
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Forces the next healing or absorption spell to Critically Hit. Lasts 30s.
Touch the Light -
Instant - No Global Cooldown
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Causes the next healing or absorption spell to be cast instantly, reducing its mana cost by 50%. Lasts 30s.
Fiery Will -
Instant - No Global Cooldown
Cooldown: 1 minute
Increases your damage and healing done with Fire spells by 25%, and absorption granted with Fire spells by 50% for 15s.
Spiritual Conflagration -
4s Channel
Cooldown: 1 minute
Restores health over 4s. Applies Spiritual Conflagration each second, absorbing damage.
The Spiritual Conflagration absorption does not stack with itself (it only refreshes at the each second of the channel), but it does stack with the absorption from other skills.
Rite of the Forge -
Cooldown: 2 minutes
Applies Rite of the Forge every 3s, absorbing damage for 15s. Lasts 15s.
Gathering of Flames -
Cooldown: 1 minute
Applies Gathering of Flames to up to 10 party or raid members, absorbing damage. Lasts 30s. Restores health if ended prematurely.
Flame of Life -
Cooldown: 1 minute, 30 seconds
Restores health equal to 150% of the Cleric's Maximum Health to up to 10 group or raid members over 6s. Reduces damage taken by affected allies by 20%, and increases damage dealt by those allies by 5%.
Macros:
These will help, though you can make your own to suit your needs.
#show Healing Breath
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Healing Breath
cast @mouseoverui Healing Flare
#show Symbol of the Sun
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Symbol of the Sun
#show Symbol of the Torch
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Symbol of the Torch
#show Latent Blaze
suppressmacrofailures
cast Flashover
cast Touch the Light
cast Latent Blaze
#show Symbol of the Sun
suppressmacrofailures
cast @group01 Symbol of the Sun
cast @group02 Symbol of the Sun
cast @group03 Symbol of the Sun
cast @group04 Symbol of the Torch
cast @group05 Symbol of the Torch
#show Sterilize
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Sterilize
#show Cauterize
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mouseoverui Cauterize
cast @group01 Cauterize
cast @group02 Cauterize
cast @group03 Cauterize
cast @group04 Cauterize
cast @group05 Cauterize
cast @group06 Cauterize
cast @group07 Cauterize
cast @group08 Cauterize
cast @group09 Cauterize
cast @group10 Cauterize
cast @group11 Cauterize
cast @group12 Cauterize
cast @group13 Cauterize
cast @group14 Cauterize
cast @group15 Cauterize
cast @group16 Cauterize
cast @group17 Cauterize
cast @group18 Cauterize
cast @group19 Cauterize
cast @group20 Cauterize
#show Fire Wall
suppressmacrofailures
cast @gtae Fire Wall
cast Fire Wall
Please let me know if there are any questions or comments. I do believe this will be my first post on the Rift Forums as well, despite having played the game for a significant amount of time.
Purifier - An In-Depth Guide (3.6)
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